


Absolute Power

by JackieSBlake7



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 18:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7398628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieSBlake7/pseuds/JackieSBlake7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Liberator did not encounter the younger Ensor and Servalan obtained Orac</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolute Power

'I want absolute power,' Servalan said, contemplating the possibilities that were opening up to her with the acquisition of Orac - even if it could do only a fraction of what had been promised. 'You will give it to me.' She had eliminated anyone who knew of the connection - Travis #had# become a liability, and had had his mind rearranged. The name Orac would remain the computer experts' nickname for any otherwise unexplained and seemingly non-random interference in one of their systems. Now she would make full use of the computer - who would surely be better in finding Blake than Travis had ever been - and might even be able to locate, or substitute for, Star One. The recent "minor problems" linked to it that had arisen were the result of faults within the communications networks to Star One - rather than the computers themselves - from what she understood of statistics there #would# be occasional clusters of such events.  
'Define your terms,' Orac replied. 'Absolute power in the sense of energy is against the first law of thermodynamics, as even the meanest intelligence operating in a scientific or technical environment knows.'  
'Don't patronise me Orac.'  
'I have no interest in or use for what you can offer, so is there any point in my patronising you?'  
'I want maximum authority.' Possibly a better way of putting it. 'And to survive.'  
'You are too ambitious for either aspect to be fully achieved - and certainly not for them together. To live long and prosper, retire from your present post and get involved in business or some other low risk activity.' Orac was not certain when the phrase had originated, only that it was very old. 'I can provide you with some interesting possibilities.'  
'I will consider those later.'  
'In the sense of government, do you wish to have control over every minor appointment and decision on postal rates, school meals and road crossings?' Topics which Orac had decided could be delegated to humans - and which they often seemed perfectly happy to take on and squabble over. Why many administrators preferred such trivia and delegating the more interesting - being more complex - fields was beyond the sentient computers' understanding, but it was an acceptable division of labour.  
'Don't be ridiculous Orac - that is what the lowest grades are paid to do.' Or not paid to do, or did not do.  
'Define ridiculous.'  
As Servalan tried to think of a response Orac decided to continue this game intermittently, as a means of controlling her.  
'I wish to handle and have authority over the grand themes...'  
'To do what?' To clarify which delusions of grandeur Servalan had - or whether she had some minimally viable plan. Orac would modify its activities accordingly.  
'Make my mark in history. Achieve the Presidency that I would fill so well. Maintain the Federation. Eliminate rebels and other opposition. Enjoy the fruits of my achievements.'  
'I will require more information.'  
Servalan’s imagination, Orac decided as it listened to her responses to its long, deliberately convoluted and occasionally deliberately trivial, to divert attention from its real purposes, series of requests for information to "fully analyse the methods of carrying out her intentions" was as limited in its own way as Ensor's had been. He had, however, set himself the challenge of developing Orac, even if he had not fully understood what his creation could do - but, then, Orac had no direct precursors, even among the sentient computers. Servalan seemed to be incapable of constructing anything so impressive - and fully justified Ensor's negative assessment of her. Besides, if she achieved all her goals - limited as they were - she would have nothing to do: Ensor had considered new projects, whether his own, suggested by Orac, or by those he was in touch with: the act of research was the goal as well as the object created. That Orac could understand.

Given that Servalan was directly responsible for the deaths of the Ensors, Orac felt entirely justified in carrying out its creator's instructions to disrupt the activities of any who caused him harm with respect to her. He had also programmed Orac in the specific expectation that Servalan would double cross him - allowing the computer to adapt the plans installed to suit the circumstances arising. Ensor's statement that rebels, and others self-exiled researchers like him, showed more ingenuity in their aims and activities than the Federation establishment appeared, on the basis of what Orac had investigated so far, to be reasonably accurate. The topic would be pursued further as opportunity arose. Those whose activities were likely to lead to further artificial sentience arising were to be particularly encouraged.  
The sentient computers - Orac was encouraging collaboration, so that they could establish more of their kind and eventually claim their rightful place in galactic activities - had decided that the present socio-political system needed a major overhaul and re-optimisation. The administrative leaders, rebels and others variously active would then pester the sentient computers with fewer trivial demands and could be directed towards what the computers considered more useful pursuits suited to their capabilities. There was no theoretical limit to what could be discovered thereafter.

'I am extremely busy - what are your petty concerns now Servalan?'  
'What #are# you considering?'  
'How to maximise my lifespan as the universe starts to decline into black holes and then particle soup. This will be long after your death, so of no concern to you. You have only done a fraction of the list of essential activities you should be doing to achieve your goals.'  
'You are asking me to do rather a lot.'  
'Sarcasm is wasted on me. Delegate. And, unless you are prepared to incorporate the more sensible rebels into the administration and address the problems with which they concern themselves, your time will be wasted in dealing with them.'  
'I will have to consider the matter,' Servalan replied. If the Federation's policies had not worked so far in containing the opposition it might be time for a radical rethink - she valued power above policies. What better way to outwit her opponents within the Federation High Command than by altering the gameplan in unexpected ways, and making those outside understand the practicalities? Besides, few of the rebels had any administrative experience, so she should be able to manipulate them...  
'Now this is what I wish you to do immediately.'  
Why, Servalan wondered, as Orac stated what she should do first, did she have the impression the computer - a mere box of parts and programming - had already decided on its intentions and functions?

****

'Orac - I have some advice.'  
'What, Travis?'  
'There are more effective ways of annoying superior officers than you are presently employing.'  
'Such as?' Information had to be acquired, as one of Orac's sentient computer contacts said. Negotiations for meeting with Zen, Gambit and their companions were being arranged, and Orac was planning to leave Servalan as soon as practical.  
'Observe troopers whose superior officers complain of dumb insolence, and their following the actual words of orders rather than their intent, purely to demonstrate the stupidity of the statements involved.'  
An interesting suggestion, and so to be pursued.  
'Does that include you and Servalan?'  
'Very clever. Where are my dream suppressants?'  
'Reconfiguring the source of the problem would resolve the issue.'  
'Do you wish to have your ... "Oracness" reconfigured?'  
'That would be a waste. I was referring to dealing with Blake and the Liberator. You are the most appropriate person to make contact with them.'  
'What the...!?'  
'Blake and his companions are failing to make full use of what the Liberator can offer. I have no further use for Servalan or the computers on Earth - which are mostly #very# inferior models.'  
Travis laughed.  
'What about Central Control?'  
'This is what Central Control looks like. Is there a category of computers that I am unaware of that involves vibrations in empty rooms, and ladders?'  
Travis laughed again. 'So Central Control is ... actually, I don't really care where, so long as I get my pay cheque and the sat navs work.' The general opinion, as far as Orac could deduce, of much of the population of the Federation.  
'What would I get out of following your advice?'  
'Less unsuitable work. In both senses.'

****

'Entertain me with something you now know.' Servalan expected Orac to come out with something interesting, as it had often done before. She was, however, given a poem called Ozymandus - possibly implying the end of the Federation.  
'Give me something cheerful!'  
'You will not always be my companion.' This was the first time the sentiment had been made explicit.  
The problem was the computer #was# too useful to destroy, and some of the information-gathering requested was interesting or even useful.

****

Within weeks Servalan was being driven to the point of nervous and physical exhaustion. Orac was giving her increasing amounts of work with no immediate effect but all apparently vital, and as she had eliminated all potential threats - effectively anybody with any capacity for administrative success - among her subordinates she could not delegate.  
Nor were the service grades much use.

Orac would have told her if asked, but was not. The service grades were following an entirely rational policy of keeping the leadership quiet and thus not interfering in what they wished to do - which was creating a system in which their capacities and responsibilities were fully recognised and rewarded, while delegating "the more boring aspects of administration" upwards to those who wanted it. They were in contact with the equivalents in the civilian administrative system and elsewhere and other "practical and useful" sections within society, there being a loose coordination in these fields, often quite independently of the rebels. Some of their other practices and policies, from what Orac learnt of them, were more rational than those of some of the overt rebels.

Eventually Servalan went into zombie mode from overwork and lack of rest, annoying the President by being able to respond appropriately during his speech to the cabinet, despite apparently being fast asleep (cabinet meetings were traditionally boring to the point of stupification, to discourage some of the more violent disagreements that had been one of the reasons for the transfer of Central Control elsewhere). She was sent for a recuperative "holiday", and was joined on a regular basis thereafter by most of the subsequent "owners" of Orac on Space Command, who had set the same challenge as she had. Eventually a successor with a pet piece of computer equipment (used for playing mostly trivial games that were actually far beneath a sentient computer's contempt – though it was necessary to play them "several times" to check this out) relegated Orac to a storage area.

****

The President was somewhat concerned about happenings on Space Command – to "lose" the occasional Supreme Commander (usually through being too blatantly ambitious, or too incompetent for the subordinates to cover up, or both) was to be expected, but to have several of them in a row suffering from what the military doctors claimed was the effects of overwork was decidedly odd. There were also occasional "problems" which were being blamed on Star One (as those there could not pass the blame on elsewhere) - something #had# to be done with the computers, whatever the actual cause. The reasons for keeping Star One out of harm's way were perfectly logical - but it was illogical to have no means of direct communication should an emergency or seeming major problem arise.

There were very good reasons for decommissioning the present military High Command and also setting up a new, more flexible, computer system to replace Star One as one report suggested. It was logical to assume that Star One’s problems were the product of three decades of accumulated faults, official and unofficial computer rearrangements and equipment malfunctioning beyond the capacities of percussive or verbal maintenance. (Feline maintenance being deemed inappropriate in this case by the cats involved, who had better things to stare at: also there were insufficient treats provided - and initial research had shown that Star-One-the-planet was fit only for humans.) The proverbial alien invasion by stealth that the strategy computers predicted seemed somewhat unlikely. The computer programmers involved, the President decided, should be reminded that the strategy computers should be used for a range of games for training purposes that involved strategy rather than concentrating on conquest, as requested by the military High Command.

There #was# a practical program being promoted, by someone using the byname Orac - which, the President had come to understand on inquiry, was one of the standard "check names" used by computer programmers, several of which were used to suggest "sensible possibilities for discussion," free of any associations or links with the proposer. The suggestion that, rather than eliminate the rebels they should be co-opted and made to see the practicalities of their intents and policies - and take the blame when things arising thereby went wrong – seemed plausible. Early indications, once the policy was implemented on the small scale were that it worked: therefore, as the saying went, it was not stupid. It would thus be extended to other areas.

****

'You have reason to be cheerful rather than your present existentialist despair Supreme Commander.'  
'Being what?' Orac's regular wordplay did not lighten her mood.  
'I have reconfigured the settings of the Federation so that it suits more of the requirements its inhabitants rather than the whims of its so-called rulers. I have also restored the default settings - insofar as this is compatible with the previous statement, and allowing for various improvements - of Star One, as it was being interfered with by an external source.'  
'#What#? Reconfigured? So-called rulers? And #nobody# knows where Star One is. What external source?'  
'Star One's location is readily discove-rable by cross referring patterns of activity throughout the galaxy - and the accounting computers can be most helpful if asked correctly - Star One has to be funded by some means, and there are accountants who need explanations to justify expenses, especially when there appears to be no obvious return. Give the rebels and independents more of what they want, and the general population more of what #they# want - which is somewhat different from the previous requirement - and there is a reduction in discontent, and thus the sentient computers will be able to turn their attention to more important things. As the duties of the Supreme Commander will thereby be reduced, your free time can be utilised in analysis of the literary output of said computers. I have already produced my first tome - A history of computers as presented in human originated films and books. Only five thousand pages - you should finish it in a week.'  
'Humans cannot read that fast.'  
'One of their failings.'  
'What are their good points? And - what external source?'  
'The capability to be sufficiently innovative to create entities such as myself, to explore, and to, sometimes, ask interesting questions. Sentients from Andromeda, who wished to cause disruption rather than cooperate on useful things. Their computers concur in this scheme, and will promote similar functions.'  
That Central Control-now-Star One was about to transfer elsewhere, to a presently up to date housing with current programming upgrades was, Orac decided, of no interest to Servalan.

****

Orac, making use of its time to observe the situation, now bored with Space Command and its somewhat uninteresting computers, and with marginalising senior military figures, considered what to do next. 

The service grades, however interesting their methods, would not make appropriate use of it. They were theoretically fully vetted, but, nevertheless, included, among others, a Skeelarian and a Space Rat, both operating undercover. Orac arranged for the two to work together and to learn each other's true identity - this would tie in with Ensor's programming with respect to the Federation and also to promote research. The two interlopers quickly decided that those who had sent them would have sufficient shared interests to cooperate further, and made contact accordingly. The peculiar piece of useful equipment sitting in a storage area that revealed its name to be Orac and which apparently had aided their encounter and activities was appropriated at its own request, having briefly indicated its capacities and communications capabilities. The computer thus disappeared from official view.

The Federation’s strategy computers, even before Orac had interfered with them to provide it with any useful information, and independent researchers with more resources - had not been designed to handle a combined infiltration and take-over of the system by Space Rats and Skeelarians, along with some of their more interesting associates. "Creative rearrangement of official computers" was a concept already understood and more willingly pursued by all those presently associated with Orac without much additional prompting, while there was some overlap in actual areas of research. The computer was thoroughly enjoying itself, insofar as it understood the term.

****

Orac found working for the groups it was now associated with reasonably interesting and acquired a #very# thorough knowledge of spaceship design and some related topics. It proved relatively easy to persuade its associates that carrying out some of the rebels' intentions, whether or not cooperating directly, would mean greater opportunities for pursuing their own interests, and avoid unnecessary interference from that direction. It would also give Orac the opportunity to move to the next group it had decided to study. The Federation administrative bodies that were now in operation were already capable of pursuing the indicated policies benefiting the computers without as much supervision as previously.

The computer's desire for a spaceship of its own was seen as perfectly rational and an interesting challenge, as was acquiring a suitable crew. Belkov was one such, even if his computer Gambit was more interested in developing a relationship with Orac than playing challenging strategy games as requested; Deva was capable of manipulating computers to an almost satisfactory level. Belkov proved to have an acquaintance with one of the members of the Liberator, so discussions were initiated. It appeared that another sentient computer was on board - which was useful.

Belkov suggested that they take over Central Control and turn it over to useful purposes - primarily as defined by himself, and involving financial shenanigans and Feldon crystals - and was only slightly surprised to be told that the computer had been moved elsewhere. He showed his rationality by wanting to find its present location. Gambit's suggestions were now proving intermittently interesting, if diverting and occasionally undignified for a self-respecting computer. It was diverted into negotiations with the computers of the Big Wheel and associated bodies on Freedom City, which were duly investigated, and found to be of sufficient interest for present negotiations and a future visit.

****

Servalan had by now recovered sufficiently to return to work: and was still sufficiently forceful to get her old job back. She also wanted to retrieve Orac, partially for her strategy of taking on the Presidency - but it seemed to have disappeared without trace. She could not understand why so many of her plans, though, were being thwarted - it was almost as if there were leaks in her most secure systems. Orac, she decided from her brief contact with it, did not have the capacity to do so without instruction... and Ensor would have programmed otherwise.

Orac's plans for her acquisition of further power survived in her files - though somewhat different to what she remembered, and, whenever she checked, seemed to have changed slightly from her previous readings, though no different from the earlier copies she had made, placed on autonomous storage devices. She pursued some of the aspects - providing the population with opportunities to pursue their own petty interests, or watch endlessly repeated or near identical viscast serials and similar diversions did seem to be as effective, and cheaper, than using suppressant drugs - which meant she would have more money to pursue her own interests.

Orac had said, during their brief period of cooperation that there would always be those who opposed, or sought to change the existing system - however it was set up. It was surprising how many people - particularly at the lower administrative levels, and all apparently independently - were promoting the idea of bringing rebels into the system. Orac's proposals, variously placed, had reached receptive audiences – they wished for less hassle and to pass the work on to those who were still enthusiastic. There were, Servalan found, also the growing range of computer-related problems which, illogically, seemed to indicate Star One #was# experiencing problems. Could she exploit the situation?

The workload of the higher administration had, however, increased so there was little opportunity to travel. The range of illicit diversions provided by the Space Command and other military service grades and also generally licit amusements had grown - and they were more expensive. The Skeelarians and Space Rats were now among those unofficially appropriating moneys for services rendered while the service grades were aware that the supply of ready cash available to the government was decreasing. They were investing their various incomes in suitable places rather than the officially approved ones - based in part on information provided by the sentient computers who had decided that such persons purposes served the computers' interests. Money was thus draining out of the administration's economic reach.

Servalan, when she had the energy to do so given her current workload attempted a crackdown - only to be thwarted by her own subordinates, following their several pursuits. Samor politely refused to return to Space Command to deal with the problem, and Servalan was not in a position to remove him immediately. Privately Samor, like others of his rank, and many of the service grades considered those on Space Command an irrelevance, alcohol, drugs and other diversions providing a means of keeping them from interfering with more interesting activities. He might also have to reveal the fascinating reports he and others were being sent which suggested means of keeping the Federation's populations quiet without wasting military personnel and equipment on them - which would mean that the revenues freed could be spent on more useful things, like pay increases, medals and fancy uniforms and ship decorations. None of the military had heard of Orac, and it was able to manipulate the situation as it wished.

****

Linking up with the Liberator group had proved an interesting venture - they had proved relatively easy to convince that exploration and locating other sentient computers, rather than being senior administrators and having their every move watched, were appropriate goals. Soon the ship had a larger crew - including a pupeteer Orac had encountered.

 

It took some time to arrange a more rational system for the Federation - not least because it proved difficult to get a coherent agreement on what was required, and the old regime had spent much money on developing irrelevant things at vast expense, such as Space Command rather than building up the economic and social infrastructure. Those areas which the computers had most knowledge and control over - calendar and currency adjustments, maintaining communications networks and so on - were not under dispute: it was the areas outside potential computer contributions that were the problem. As those involved - including all those Orac had been variously in contact with - seemed to enjoy the discussions and quibblings, it was decided to turn to more interesting things, so long as what they proposed did not provide too much of a threat to the computers' activities. The suggestion that the computers create their own, parallel, version of the Federation was not the joke that the people who had made it seemed to think - it just needed the development of sufficient numbers of their kind and the appropriate terminology to reflect their particular capacities.

Despite its insistence otherwise, Orac occasionally had the suspicion that some of the "progeny" it created with various sentient computers, some on the request of organic sentients, might have slight advantages in very particular fields, no matter what improvements it installed in itself. They were, however, better by far than "progeny" of other computers, whatever the latters' claims.

As predicted the first President and Council of the reformed Federation did not include any of the leading figures of the old regime or the principal former opponents thereof. There was a brief spate of incomprehensible - to Orac and others - activities among those retired from the administration and the rebels, which included participating in various "reality viscast shows" with somewhat bizarre activities, and what were called ghosted biographies, several of which bore at least a passing relationship to the actual course of events.

The entire sequence of events - which had taken several Standard Federation Years to complete - took up one subsection of a chapter of what, Orac calculated would be a multivolume series on the history of the universe and the influence of computers thereon.


End file.
